Benjamin Orr

I clearly recall during the 80's seeing some of the very first ads for Kahler bass tremolos featuring Ben Orr of The Cars. I cannot say for certain what, if any, recordings were made while he used one, but he was definitely one of the very first endorsers of Kahlers. Sadly, Ben passed away from cancer in October of 2000 at the age of 53.

Man...all these artists dying in the early years of this decade

Indeed. I heard The Cars a lot during my days of youth, and I used to cover a handful of their tunes. They were a bit quirky, but the song writing was really strong! And Ben Orr was another early influence of mine. He never overplayed at all, and he was really solid. I remember being 16, and seeing the video for Dangerous Type on MTV, and he was playing a Gibson Flying V bass, which I thought was the coolest looking thing I had ever seen!

I used to see their videos all the time on a small station around here called The Tube that played music videos all day and infomercials all nigh!